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Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy Hardcover – September 15, 2020

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,910 ratings

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times bestseller The Spy and the Traitor uncovers the true story behind one of the Cold War’s most intrepid spies.

“[An] immensely exciting, fast-moving account.”—
The Washington Post

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Foreign Affairs Kirkus Reviews Library Journal

In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her.

They didn’t know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn’t know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb.

This true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named “Sonya.” Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI—and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century—between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy—and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times.

With unparalleled access to Sonya’s diaries and correspondence and never-before-seen information on her clandestine activities, Ben Macintyre has conjured a page-turning history of a legendary secret agent, a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[Ben] Macintyre at once exalts and subverts the myths of spy craft.”The New Yorker

“Macintyre is fastidious about tradecraft details. . . . [He] has become the preeminent popular chronicler of British intelligence history because he understands the essence of the business.”
—David Ignatius, The Washington Post

“Macintyre writes with novelistic flair.”
Entertainment Weekly

“Macintyre is a superb writer, with an eye for the telling detail as fine as any novelist’s.”
The Dallas Morning News

“Macintyre is one of the most gifted espionage writers around.”
—Annie Jacobsen, author of Area 51 and Operation Paperclip

“Macintyre writes with the diligence and insight of a journalist, and the panache of a born storyteller.”
—John Banville, The Guardian (UK)

“With Macintyre in charge, you’re virtually guaranteed a history book that reads like a spy novel.”
Richmond Times-Dispatch

“A scrupulous and insightful writer—a master historian.”
—Alan Furst, author of Mission to Paris

“Macintyre is a master at leading the reader down some very tortuous paths while ensuring they never lose their bearings.”
Evening Standard (UK)

“Macintyre . . . has that enviable gift, the inability to write a dull sentence.”
The Spectator (UK)

About the Author

Ben Macintyre is a writer-at-large for The Times (U.K.) and the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and Rogue Heroes, among other books. Macintyre has also written and presented BBC documentaries of his work.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown; First Edition (September 15, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593136306
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593136300
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.37 x 9.68 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,910 ratings

About the author

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Ben Macintyre
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Ben Macintyre is a writer-at-large for The Times of London and the bestselling author of A Spy Among Friends, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and Rogue Heroes, among other books. Macintyre has also written and presented BBC documentaries of his work.

(Photo Credit: Justine Stoddart)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
5,910 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the story compelling and gripping. They appreciate the meticulous research and well-documented understory. Readers describe the female spy as interesting and fascinating. The book is described as thrilling and fun, with a fast-paced narrative. However, opinions differ on the character study - some find it interesting and great, while others feel it's too self-centered.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

87 customers mention "Story quality"81 positive6 negative

Customers find the story engaging and gripping. They appreciate the accurate writing and detailed descriptions of people's psychology. Readers find the portrayal of a complex and sympathetic Soviet spy fascinating, despite moral discrepancies. The book contains an insightful study of official Soviet, German, British, and American records from over 35 years.

"...I will be enjoying a well written, well researched, fascinating chronicle of modern espionage...." Read more

"History that reads like a novel. What an amazing cast of characters from history...." Read more

"My friend liked the book! Said it was good reading!" Read more

"...We’ll never know. A great read, chock full of exceptionally interesting characters like Agnes Smedley, Richard Sorge and Sandro Rado and..." Read more

26 customers mention "Research quality"23 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the book's research quality. They find it meticulously researched and well-documented. The biographical details are detailed and interesting. The summary at the end is helpful.

"...certain in the knowledge that I will be enjoying a well written, well researched, fascinating chronicle of modern espionage...." Read more

"...in obtaining secrets re building the atomic bomb and her personal life also is interesting if not amazing...." Read more

"...Very well researched and documented...." Read more

"...Ursula is brilliant, brave and resourceful and a woman of her convictions. However, I found the writing rather plodding and long winded...." Read more

8 customers mention "Female spy"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's female spy interesting and full of intrigue. They say the book provides a real sense of the woman, her motivations, and details about her life. Readers also describe her as brilliant, brave, resourceful, and a woman of her convictions.

"...This is the story of the female spy Ursula Kuczynski. And what a story!..." Read more

"Well told, and easy to follow biography of Ursula Kuckynski, “Sonja” a lucky, effective and female Soviet spy...." Read more

"Excellent research and a cast of compelling characters. Ursula is brilliant, brave and resourceful and a woman of her convictions...." Read more

"...fiction, but this true, well documented history, of Ursula Kuczynski is fascinating and full of intrigue...." Read more

5 customers mention "Thrill"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's thrill. They find it fast-paced and fun, with a slow start that turns into an exciting ride.

"...Like the writer’s other books about espionage and spies, it is thrilling - and can be read like a thriller...." Read more

"This book begins slowly, but then take es you on a wild ride with one of the for most spies for the Soviet Union." Read more

"I have read four other books that were well written and exciting. This title, Agent Sonya, was not up to your standards...." Read more

"Great read. Fast-paced and fun." Read more

4 customers mention "Pace"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's fast-paced and thrilling story. They find it starts slowly but then takes them on a wild ride.

"...books about espionage and spies, it is thrilling - and can be read like a thriller. This is biography writing at its best...." Read more

"This book begins slowly, but then take es you on a wild ride with one of the for most spies for the Soviet Union." Read more

"...Solid history with novelistic pace." Read more

"Great read. Fast-paced and fun." Read more

35 customers mention "Pacing"24 positive11 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's pacing. Some find it well-written and engaging, while others find the writing boring and tiresome after a while. The first few pages may be hard to get into for some readers.

"...it right away, certain in the knowledge that I will be enjoying a well written, well researched, fascinating chronicle of modern espionage...." Read more

"...This is biography writing at its best. The writer paints the big canvas: Here is drama, passion, fear, paranoia, deception, danger...." Read more

"...for reading with so much more social media - it was hard to get into the fist few pages - too much history for my liking" Read more

"...Macintyre includes detailed end notes for each chapter. He provides photos of Ursula, her family, handlers and assets...." Read more

20 customers mention "Character study"13 positive7 negative

Customers have different views on the character study. Some find it engaging and interesting, with many pictures of main characters. Others feel it's too focused on personal details and not useful for understanding the story.

"History that reads like a novel. What an amazing cast of characters from history...." Read more

"...We’ll never know. A great read, chock full of exceptionally interesting characters like Agnes Smedley, Richard Sorge and Sandro Rado and..." Read more

"...media - it was hard to get into the fist few pages - too much history for my liking" Read more

"...Agent Sonya - lover, mother, soldier, spy - is an extremely good biography. Macintyre has written several biographies about famous spies...." Read more

Exciting, page turner about Soviet intelligence
5 out of 5 stars
Exciting, page turner about Soviet intelligence
Excellent biography of a previously overlooked Soviet military intelligence officer who played an important role in Moscow’s operations against Japan and Germany during World War II and help to steal nuclear technological secrets from the United Kingdom during the war.Also, an interesting personality study of an absolutely committed communist agent with an addiction to risk. She was later called is superagent by Vladimir Putin.Also, I have read a number of books by Ben Macintyre and they are all good, but his recent books just keep getting better and better.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2020
    When I see Ben Macintyre's name on a new book I buy it and start reading it right away, certain in the knowledge that I will be enjoying a well written, well researched, fascinating chronicle of modern espionage. Agent Sonya is a worthy successor to such brilliant Macintyre works as The Spy and the Traitor and A Spy Among Friends, with a critical difference: the major protagonist is female.

    Ursula Kuczynski was a member of a prominent and wealthy German Jewish family active in Berlin's intellectual and artistic circles. In her childhood she lived through Germany's defeat in World War I, and as a teenager she witnessed the mounting tensions and rising anti-Semitism that led to the fall of the Weimar Republic and its replacement with Hitler's Third Reich. Like many in her generation Ursula became a Communist, not so much for ideological reasons as because she saw the Soviet Union as the strongest enemy of Fascism. Helped by her family's left-wing connections, Ursula journeyed to the Soviet Union, was recruited as a spy by Stalin's many-tentacled intelligence services, and spent years in Shanghai, Mukden, Moscow, Switzerland, and eventually rural England on various espionage assignments using the code name Sonya. Along the way she had a passionate affair with another Soviet spy, Richard Sorge, married or lived with three different men by whom she had three children, and jumped from one hair raising adventure to another. Her sex was an asset, since the Soviet and other intelligence services with whom she dealt were all highly male chauvinistic, and she was able to fly under the radar for many years, seeming to be nothing more than a nice normal wife and mother. Her most important contribution to the Soviet espionage effort was her connection with the physicist Klaus Fuchs, who passed an enormous amount of information on British and American efforts to build an atomic bomb through her to the Kremlin. Eventually, after Fuchs was exposed and arrested, Ursula and her family escaped to East Germany, where she lived for most of the rest of her life.

    Ursula's story seems too incredible even for the pages of a Fleming or Deighton spy thriller, but it all really happened, making Macintyre's extensively documented tale just as riveting as any James Bond adventure. If after reading Agent Sonya you are hungry for more such tales, I can recommend any of Macintyre's books, most especially A Spy Among Friends, which is about Kim Philby, another Soviet spy with whom Ursula had an indirect connection.
    41 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2024
    History that reads like a novel. What an amazing cast of characters from history. One anachronism that I noticed on page 153 when in 1938 Ursula turns on her transistor radio. The transistor was not invented until 1947 and the first radios came on the market in 1954. Most spies could not secretly use a large tube radio of the time and often used crystal radios.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2025
    Great true story…what a life!
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2025
    Good values, great seller A+++
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2024
    My friend liked the book! Said it was good reading!
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2023
    A welm written book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2021
    I have read most of Macintyre’s books and they are all gripping.

    I found Agent Sonya a little more difficult to get into but once I did it did not disappoint. I have read reviews that have criticized the book for its subject matter. How can we relate to a Soviet spy? How can we feel anything for someone who worked for Stalin against the West? I think that is an over simplification.

    I tried to put myself in the shoes of Ursula Maria Kuczynski, a young German Jew horrified at the rise of fascism in Europe in the 20’s and 30’s. Like Ursula I would like to think that I would do all I could to resist and to fight. The natural vehicle for Ursula to travel in to conduct that fight was the communist party and she joined in 1926, just as Hitler was rising to prominence.

    European communists fought fascism in Spain, Germany, the Far East and Eastern Europe and were a major part of the French resistance. Ursula becomes a committed communist (and anti fascist) and an accomplished asset as we follow her from Germany to China and thereafter to Switzerland and finally to the UK.

    This is where the story becomes a little muddy for many. Yes, Ursula spied for Stalin, a man as despotic and evil as Hitler. But at that time Churchill and Roosevelt were working with the Soviet leader and we were allies.

    Ursula spied against the Nazi’s for the Soviets while in the UK but she also helped to infiltrate communist spies into the US atomic weapons program. In doing so she helped the Soviets to develop their own atomic bomb. Obviously this puts her beyond the pale for many people but the world was a different place 60 and 70 years ago. Who knows, without Ursula maybe we would not have had a world where both sides of the Cold War had the means to totally annihilate the other? Maybe in that scenario, without the promise of “mutually assured destruction”, a Nixon or a Reagan or, heaven forbid, a Trump may have been tempted to wipe out half the planet. We’ll never know.

    A great read, chock full of exceptionally interesting characters like Agnes Smedley, Richard Sorge and Sandro Rado and another triumph for Mr Macintyre.
    8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Barbara
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling!
    Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2023
    MacIntyre never disappoints & Agent Sonya is another one of his well researched biographies. Written like a spy novel, it's hard to believe how a relatively innocuous wife & mother was one of the most effective Communist Spies who did so much damage to the West's military security from her activities in China, Switzerland and the UK. A real eye opener & a very enjoyable read.
  • Nikolaos Katsimitros
    5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Spy Story
    Reviewed in Germany on September 25, 2024
    A true and exciting spy story told by the master of its kind, Ben MacIntyre.
  • Eswaran Iyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
    Reviewed in India on April 17, 2024
    Anyone who likes Le Carre….will greatly enjoy reading this book. Authentic in the real sense. McIntyre is a true master of historical fiction
  • Philippe M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars une histoire incroyable d'un agent qui ne s'est jamais fait prendre
    Reviewed in France on June 3, 2023
    Sonya a été formée en partie par Sorge, et a échappé aussi aux purges stalinienne,
    c'est toute l'histoire de la guerre froide!
  • João Almeida
    5.0 out of 5 stars Om
    Reviewed in Spain on January 23, 2023
    Como o fanatismo político pode motivar uma pessoa